HOW TO TRACK VERY WILD DEER. 135 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE SUREST WAY TO TRACK DEER WHEN VERY WILD. 



YOUR high opinion of the merits of a " tracking- 

 snow" for deer underwent yesterday a very serious 

 modification. And if you had continued hunting a 

 few days as you did yesterday you might have con- 

 cluded that snow was no better than bare ground for 

 hunting deer. Your error was a very common and 

 natural one, yet one that you might hunt a long time 

 without even suspecting. 



You have already seen how deer, when once started, 

 watch their back track so keenly that you not only 

 stand no chance of getting a shot, but can rarely get 

 even sight of them again. And a single deer can do 

 this just as well as a dozen could. All deer are so 

 nearly alike in this respect that it will rarely avail 

 you to follow tracks of those you have started. But 

 deer that are little hunted, especially when not hunted 

 by tracking, generally pay no more attention to their 

 back track than to any other direction ; that is, pre- 

 vious to being alarmed. But when much hunted by 

 tracking they finally drift into a state of chronic sus- 

 picion of their back track. Hence they will learn to 

 watch it with as much care before being started as 

 they do after being started; and they will select 

 places to lie down in from which they can see back 

 upon quite a portion of their trail. And this instinct 



